Primitive.
Whether or not it manifests in clinically acute ways…the belief that a person is bad, untrustworthy, and broken at their core is one of the most destructive things a person can be told or can come to believe. In many faith communities and belief systems, this idea of being unworthy is so reinforced that it does not register as foundationally destructive or a feature of psychological abuse. Telling people they are broken at the core is a sure way to create people who feel broken at their core. Feeling bad, wrong, or fractured at the core of who we are is a defining feature of spiritual trauma.
~ Hillary McBride, Holy Hurt
How do you see God?
Too simple or obvious a question? Probably not. Our view of God is often complicated and even contradictory, shot through with cognitive dissonance. What’s more, your view of God affects everything. If you start in the wrong place here, you can’t get to the safe intuitive intimacy you are created for.
Ancient religions mostly tended to engage the divine from a fear-based posture. The sacrificing of crops or animals or in extreme case, babies, to appease the gods was standard protocol. The gods, whether located in trees and rivers or rooted in complex, soap-operaesque pantheons, were anthropomorphisms—a fancy word for attributing human characteristics to nonhuman entities. So primitive spirituality found itself relating to gods who were capricious and vindictive more often than beneficent and nurturing.
The residue of this ingrained perspective was carried forward even into the Abrahamic traditions. While the primary character of God became anchored in “goodness,” this quality was filtered through the twin lenses of holiness and justice, as defined by the primitive mind: holiness was understood as distance from the human condition, and justice was understood as retribution against the human condition.
Enter Jesus. No one closed the distance like him and modeled relationship to a loving, intimate Abba. Nothing recast our understanding of justice from retribution to restoration like the Sermon on the Mount. These crucial redemptions of primitive religion set the stage for a radically new way to live in security and affection with God. A God who knows us thoroughly, accepts us unconditionally, and loves us fiercely.
So what’s the problem? The problem is when spiritual connection becomes institutionalized as religion. Thus, the popular modern expression of “Spiritual but not Religious” or SBNR.
The drift of spirituality toward religion is inevitable for one simple, historically-obvious reason: the temptation for control by the powerful is simply too enticing and too available. The opportunity to monetize access to forgiveness and belonging is just too delicious. This was the death knell of early Christian spirituality through the genius of Constantine and Theodosius who assimilated a previously subversive spirituality into the Roman political patriarchy, subsuming the entire future of the Christian religion.
This primitive abrogation of genuine Christianity continued in the theological battle between Augustine and Pelagius, the former envisioning the human condition as fundamentally corrupt (“original sin”) and the latter envisioning humanity as fundamentally beloved (“original blessing”). And although belovedness continued in the Celtic expression of Christianity for the next few centuries, corruption won the battle of narratives and defined the future of institutional Christianity.
Does it really matter where the human condition originates if grace and reconciliation are the gifts Jesus brings? Oh yes!
If the truest thing about us is corruption, then our intrinsic relationship to God is alienation, requiring a blood sacrifice (primitive religion) to secure our safety in the hereafter. But if the truest thing about us is our familial belovedness, then reconciliation with a loving heavenly Parent is a foregone conclusion. The Prodigal will come home and (s)he will find embrace, not punishment. God’s heart has always between toward us with the greatest affection and commitment.
We see glimmers of this affection and commitment in the Old Covenant, but it bursts onto the scene with full disclosure in the New. “The old (primitive) has gone, the new (redemptive) is here!” says Paul. All that remains is to peel away the persistent narratives of an angry, offended, judgy God embedded deeply into our psyches by enduring strains of primitive Christian religion. That sounds like Good News to me, how about you?
finding our way home
How long a journey it is to recover our fundamental belovedness, our original goodness as children of God. There is no amount of human brokenness (which is extensive) that can separate us from the love of God demonstrated by Jesus.
takeaway
You are good. You are safe.